91视频

By the end of 2026, Portland-based Timberlab will be able to buy timber from Oregon foresters, mill the logs at its sawmill in Philomath and then process the wood into cross-laminated timber panels at its manufacturing facility in Millersburg. Construction of that plant will begin soon.

Timberlab鈥檚 190,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Millersburg 鈥� a small town of 3,262 located just north of Albany along Interstate 5 鈥� will add substantial capacity to the CLT market, particularly on the West Coast, and give the company a vertically integrated supply chain that will allow it to go toe to toe with major European and Canadian CLT manufacturers, according to company executives and industry experts.

The move also cements Oregon 鈥� a state that remains the nation鈥檚 largest producer of softwood lumber 鈥� as a center of the burgeoning mass-timber industry.

鈥淲e鈥檝e really taken the approach of building our business first, and building the demand for our business, and then building the manufacturing to complement that,鈥� said Christopher Evans, president of Timberlab. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a huge long-term play for demand for CLT and glulam in commercial construction, and we鈥檙e excited about it.鈥�

Initially, the plant will host 35 to 50 employees. At full capacity, the plant will generate 鈥渆asily鈥� 100 full-time jobs, Evans said.

Timberlab鈥檚 project comes amid growing demand for cross-laminated timber, which supporters pitch as a low-carbon, design-forward alternative to concrete-and-steel construction.

鈥淚t鈥檚 indicative of moving from the nascent early adopter stage to a more mainstream technology,鈥� said Iain Macdonald, executive director of the TallWood Design Institute, a Corvallis-based collaboration of Oregon State University鈥檚 colleges of forestry and engineering, and the University of Oregon鈥檚 College of Design.

Timberlab鈥檚 pursuit of vertical integration, as its foreign competitors have achieved, makes sense, Macdonald said.

鈥淭imberlab is wise to be moving in that direction,鈥� he said.

Nationwide, there were 1,058 mass-timber projects under construction or completed, and another 1,147 in design by June, according to WoodWorks, a tracker sponsored by the Wood Products Council. Most of those projects used CLT.

Oregon trailed only California for most mass-timber projects in the nation.

鈥淲e鈥檙e moving toward a situation where there鈥檚 more consistent supply, and that鈥檚 great for the industry,鈥� Macdonald said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 certainly demand.鈥�

CLT has not been immune from the wider pullback in projects amid high interest rates and construction costs.

鈥淭he private market has slowed down dramatically in the past two years, but the public market has been really strong,鈥� Evans said.

More projects in the Southeast and Midwest are using CLT, he said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot of smaller buildings where architects and engineers are using the product, and we鈥檙e seeing it become more commonplace in the industry,鈥� he said.

Evans said it was a good sign that even as private-sector projects have pulled back, CLT continued to grow in small-scale projects and public projects.

鈥淲e鈥檝e still seen continued market-share increases in mass timber for the past couple of years,鈥� he said.

Timberlab works closely with Oregon foresters, and a desire to have more control over forestry practices helped influence the company鈥檚 decision to build a CLT plant, Evans said.

鈥淲hat we鈥檝e found is if we have more ownership of more pieces of the supply chain, we can have more influence all the way back from the forestry management side of things,鈥� he said.

One aspect of the company鈥檚 sustainability push is less frequent timber harvesting.

鈥淔rom a forestry perspective, we鈥檙e incentivizing longer-term rotations on trees,鈥� Evans said. 鈥淔or the products we make, it鈥檚 helpful to have a 60-plus-year rotation on forests.鈥�

Timberlab sought a rail-served site in the Willamette Valley along Interstate 5, Evans said.

鈥淭here weren鈥檛 a ton of sites out there that met our requirements,鈥� he said.

Timberlab found a fit in Millersburg, which was incorporated in 1974 as timber, metals and chemical plants grew in the area.

The company considered and rejected building a CLT plant in the Portland-metro area 鈥� largely because of land acquisition costs, Evans said.

Millersburg鈥檚 proximity to OSU and UO was a bonus, he added.

The Timberlab site was once used by a paper mill for wastewater processing. The property has been zoned for industrial use for the five decades since Millersburg was incorporated, City Manager Kevin Kreitman said.

Timberlab鈥檚 entry is welcome, Kreitman said. Millersburg still has a timber industry presence, including ARAUCO鈥檚 particle board and composite panel manufacturing facility. But others have closed.

鈥淚t鈥檚 exciting to see that come back,鈥� Kreitman said. 鈥淭he fact that it鈥檚 a new emerging type of product is, I think, exciting.鈥�

Timberlab paid approximately $3.1 million for the parcel, Kreitman said.

Millersburg has been targeted for another industrial project known as the Delorean Development. Kreitman said he could not reveal details of that proposal.

The U.S. has only a handful of CLT manufacturers competing with firms from Canada and Europe. A Southern Oregon manufacturer, D.R. Johnson, stopped manufacturing CLT in recent years in favor of glulam beams. D.R. Johnson recently advertised CLT manufacturing equipment for sale on its website.

鈥淲ith a lot the sawmills shutting down in North America in the past couple of years, I think having a plant come online is a good thing,鈥� Evans said.

Timberlab plans to break ground on the Millersburg facility this fall and begin producing CLT panels by the end of 2026. The firm鈥檚 parent company, Swinerton, will build the facility鈥檚 core and shell. LEVER Architecture, a Portland-based firm that specializes in mass-timber design, is designing it. (Timberlab officials declined to release renderings ahead of ground being broken).

The plant will make its mark in U.S. CLT manufacturing, Evans said.

鈥淲e are looking to really invest in the technology to ensure high volume, quality (and) speed of production,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want to really contribute to the landscape in the U.S., to be a top producer in the U.S.鈥�